


Drift

by Jukebox_Bars



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 12:04:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2228355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jukebox_Bars/pseuds/Jukebox_Bars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura used to tell him to stop listening to such sad music, said he would only ever bring himself down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drift

Time with Stiles is grating.

It itches at him more than anything Derek has experienced before.

Stiles is loud, brash, a constant whirlwind of activity. He never stops to think, to breathe.

His mind races and his words spew from his lips before he can really think through what he’s saying.

Derek can appreciate it.

His older sister Laura was the same way. She’s been gone a year and he still sees glimpses of her in Stiles.

They share a frankly obnoxious laugh and the habit of biting their nails.

He sometimes thinks that may be why he kept Stiles around long enough to feel an emotion other than rage.

 

Derek is quiet, reserved, nothing like the boy next to him in his Camaro.

His mother always said his Christmas birthday made him polite and patient, made him learn to share and respect.

Derek thinks it was his loud sisters, always talking, leaving him no time to get a word out.

Derek still flinches when he hears the loud laughs of children. It reminds him too much of his own family, long gone.

 

The moon is bright, lighting the road ahead.

Johnny Cash plays over the radio and Stiles’ heartbeat echoes through Derek’s brain.

Laura used to tell him to stop listening to such sad music, said he would only ever bring himself down.

She was always right.

Laura was always right.

 

Laura was always right, she knew he had a soft spot bigger than the entirety of Africa.

Night drives were the one thing Stiles could sit through, Derek had learned.

Stiles fidgeted and moved until the road was the one moving beneath him.

Derek takes him on drives night after night. Whenever Stiles is awake and Derek is around.

It is not something they talk about, Derek lets it happen.

Laura always liked driving, would leave in the middle of the night and not come back until the next day.

Derek lets it happen.

 

Night drives are becoming a nightly event.

 

Stiles is becoming a part of Derek’s routine.

Laura liked routine, thrived from it.

Derek no longer feels like he’s wasting gas on Stiles, feels like he’s doing something right.

Night drives feel like something for himself.

Some nights he can imagine Laura next to him, can let her drift to the forefront of his mind.

 

Stiles becomes comfortable, feels like family.

Scott can’t figure out why they can lean on one another without it being uncomfortable.

Neither bother to clarify.

And if Derek only lets Laura back into his thoughts through Stiles, no one needs to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Derek listens to Johnny Cash in spite of Laura. He's fifteen. She rolls her eyes.


End file.
